Majestic Mt. St. Helens

Mt. St. Helens is just 40 miles or so into Washington from Oregon, and we want to visit now, 26 years after its May 18, 1980 eruption, because who knows when it might blow its top again?

The road into Mt. St. Helens from I-5 has three main visitor centers and a couple other learning centers too. At the first visitor center, Mark and I peruse the informative museum and see the 25-minute movie about the eruption. When we leave the visitor center, I stand to hear a ranger program while Mark buys water from a kiosk there.

Mt. St. Helens is the first and so far the only mountain that has erupted laterally. It was quite a surprise to geologists, who thought volcanoes could only erupt out their tops. The ranger shows us a rock about the size of a T-bone steak that the eruption blasted 17 miles traveling at a speed of 670 mph! The eruption wiped out the top 1300 feet of the mountain and flattened 229 square miles of forest. We learn that Mt. St. Helens is continuously active today, billowing up molten lava at a rate of a dump-truck load every 5 to 10 seconds. At that rate, the mountain will rebuild to its pre-eruption mass in about 40 years.

The visitor center was constructed to give a good view of the mountain, yet our view is obstructed by ash—from the eruption 26 years ago—blowing around. People with trailers are warned not to go to the top because winds are up to 75 mph!

About halfway up the access road, we stop at the trailhead for the easy hike along Clearwater Lake, which was formed after the eruption dammed a stream. True to its name, the lake’s waters are clear and so blue. A large boulder sits in the middle, and timber lines the edges of the lake, all resulting from the eruption. We see a carcass on the trail, guessing that it is an elk’s.

Just a quarter mile up the road is the Hummocks trailhead. We are not particularly interested in seeing the hummocks, or small hills, that resulted from the eruption: we know what hills look like. Yet we want to give the wind time to die down so that we can hike up top, around the mountain. The ranger told us there was a dangerously narrow strip of rock to traverse; I’m always up for thrilling.

The Hummock Trail is moderate, but we make it strenuous as daylight is running out, and we are anticipating the final hike. In the car on the way to the last visitor center and the trail around Mt. St. Helens, I realize I pushed myself too far on the last trail; my legs are shaky. Wind is significantly less than what it was earlier in the day, but gusts are still fairly strong we notice when we get out of the car at 4:55 p.m. in time to tour this final visitor center before its 6 p.m. closing.

From the patio outside through the yet ashy air, we can barely see the eruption, the lava oozing out of a single point to the right of the caldera, like foam pouring over the sides of a beaker during a chemistry experiment gone bad. Inside the visitor center, Mark looks at the displays while I listen to a ranger program. It is the same information I got from the other program upon entering the park.

The unique display in that final visitor center concerns animals and how or if they survived the eruption. Some insects survived; few fished survived; nothing else did. But of course in the 26 years since, all species have made the mountain their home again.

We decide since we have no snacks, it is still a bit windy, the day is late, my legs are fatigued, and the trail is slightly dangerous, we will skip the hike around the mountain.

We give one last look to Mt. St. Helens, with reddish brown ash from the day’s winds covering the snow. Majestic.